XVIII
THE WALL STREET WOLF
It was a startled couple that we found when we reached theconservatory. As we made our hasty explanation, Carton overwhelmed uswith thanks for the prompt and effective manner in which Kennedy hadsaved him from the machinations of the defeated gangsters.
Miss Ashton, who would have kept her nerves under control throughoutany emergency, actually turned pale as she learned of the danger thathad been so narrowly averted. I am sure that her feelings, which shemade no effort to conceal, must have been such as to reassure Carton ifhe had still any doubt on that score.
The delay in his coming out, however, had been just enough to arousesuspicion, and by the time that we reached the side entrance to thehouse both Ike and the night-hawk taxicab which had evidently beendrafted into service had disappeared, leaving no clue.
The result of the discovery over the vocaphone was that none of us leftMiss Ashton's until much later than we had expected.
Langhorne, apparently, had gone shortly after he left the conservatorythe last time, and Mrs. Ogleby had preceded him. When at last wemanaged to convince Miss Ashton that it was perfectly safe for Cartonto go, nothing would suffice except that we should accompany him as asort of bodyguard to his home. We did so, without encountering anyadventure more thrilling than seeing an argument between a policemanand a late reveller.
"I can't thank you fellows too much," complimented Carton as we lefthim. "I was hunting around for you, but I thought you had found asuffrage meeting too slow and had gone."
"On the contrary," returned Kennedy, equivocally, "we found it far fromslow."
Carton did not appreciate the tenor of the remark and Craig was notdisposed to enlighten him.
"What do you suppose Mrs. Ogleby meant in her references to Carton?"mused Kennedy when we reached our own apartment.
"I can't say," I replied, "unless before he came to really know MissAshton, they were intimate."
Kennedy shook his head. "Why will men in a public capacity get mixed upwith women of the adventuress type like that, even innocently?" heruminated. "Mark my words, she or someone else will make trouble forhim before we get through."
It was a thought that had lately been in my own mind, for we had hadseveral hints of that nature.
Kennedy said no more, but he had started my mind on a train ofspeculative thought. I could not imagine that a woman of Mrs. Ogleby'stype could ever have really appealed to Carton, but that did notpreclude the possibility that some unscrupulous person might make useof the intimacy for base purposes. Then, too, there was the threat thatI had heard agreed on by both Langhorne and herself over the vocaphone.
What would be the next step of the organization now in its swornwarfare on Carton, I could not imagine. But we did not have long towait. Early the following forenoon an urgent message came to Kennedyfrom Carton to meet him at his office.
"Kennedy," he said, "I don't know how to thank you for the many timesyou have pulled me through, and I'm almost ashamed to keep on callingon you."
"It's a big fight," hastened Craig. "You have opponents who know thegame in its every crooked turn. If I can be only a small cog on a wheelthat crushes them, I shall be only too glad. Your face tells me thatsomething particularly unpleasant has happened."
"It has," admitted Carton, smoothing out some of the wrinkles at themere sight of Craig.
He paused a moment, as if he were himself in doubt as to just what thetrouble was.
"Someone has been impersonating me over the telephone," he began. "Allday long there have been reports coming into my office asking mewhether it was true that I had agreed to accept the offer of Dorganthat Murtha made, you know,--that is, practically to let up on theorganization if they would let up on me."
"Yes," prompted Kennedy, "but, impersonation--what do you mean by that?"
"Why, early to-day someone called me up, said he was Dorgan, and askedif I would have any objection to meeting him. I said I would meethim--only it would do no good. Then, apparently, the same person calledup Dorgan and said he was myself, asking if he had any objection tomeeting me. Dorgan said he'd see. Whoever it was, he almost succeededin bringing about the fool thing--would have done it, if I hadn't gotwise to the fact that there was something funny about it. I called upDorgan. He said he'd meet me, as long as I had approached him first. Isaid I hadn't. We swore a little and called the fake meeting off. Butit was too late. It got into the papers. Now, you'd think it wouldn'tmake any difference to either of us. It doesn't to him. People willthink he tried to slip one over on ME. But it does make a difference tome. People will think I'm trying to sell out."
Carton showed plainly his vexation at the affair.
"The old scheme!" exclaimed Kennedy. "That's the plan that has beenused by a man down in Wall Street that they call, 'the Wolf.' He is astar impersonator--will call up two sworn enemies and put oversomething on them that double-crosses both."
"Wall Street," mused Carton. "That reminds me of another batch ofrumours that have been flying around. They were that I had made a dealwith Langhorne by which I agreed to support him in his fight to getsomething in the contracts of the new city planning scheme in returnfor his support of the part of the organization he could swing to me inthe election,--another lie."
"It might have been Langhorne himself, playing the wolf," I suggested.
Kennedy had reached for the telephone book. "Also, it might have beenKahn," he added. "I see he has an office in Wall Street, too. He hasbeen the legal beneficiary of several shady transactions down there."
"Oh," put in Carton, "it might have been any of them--they're allcapable of it from Dorgan down. If Murtha was only out, I'd be inclinedto suspect him."
He tossed over a typewritten sheet of paper. "That's the statement Igave out to the press," he explained.
It read: "My attention has been called to the alleged activities ofsome person or persons who through telephone calls and undergroundmethods are seeking to undermine confidence in my integrity. A moredespicable method of attempting to arouse distrust I cannot imagine. Itis criminal and if anyone can assist me in placing the responsibilitywhere it belongs I shall be glad to prosecute to the limit."
"That's all right," assented Kennedy, "but I don't think it will haveany effect. You see, this sort of thing is too easy for anyone to bescared off from. All he has to do is to go to a pay station and call upthere. You couldn't very well trace that."
He stopped abruptly and his face puckered with thought.
"There ought to be some way, though," I murmured, without knowing justwhat the way might be, "to tell whether it is Dorgan and theorganization crowd, or Langhorne and his pool, or Kahn and the othershysters."
"There IS a way," cried Kennedy at last. "You fellows wait here while Imake a flying trip up to the laboratory. If anyone calls us, just puthim off--tell him to call up later."
Carton continued to direct the work of his office, of which there hadbeen no interruptions even during the stress of the campaign. Now andthen the telephone rang and each time Carton would motion to me, andsay, "You take it, Jameson. If it seems perfectly regular then pass itover to me."
Several routine calls came in, this way, followed by one from MissAshton, which Carton prolonged much beyond the mere time needed todiscuss a phase of the Reform League campaign.
He had scarcely hung up the receiver, when the bell tinkledinsistently, as though central had had an urgent call which the lastconversation had held up.
I took down the receiver, and almost before I could answer the inquiry,a voice began, "This is the editor of the Wall Street Record, Mr.Carton. Have you heard anything of the rumours about Hartley Langhorneand his pool being insolvent? The Street has been flooded withstories--"
"One moment," I managed to interrupt. "This is not Mr. Carton, althoughthis is his office. No--he's out. Yes, he'll certainly be back in halfan hour. Ring up then."
I repeated the scrap of gossip that had filtered through to me, whichCarton received in quit
e as much perplexity as I had.
"Seems as if everybody was getting knocked," he commented.
"That may be a blind, though," I suggested.
He nodded. I think we both realized how helpless we were when Kennedywas away. In fact we made even our guesses with a sort of lack ofconfidence.
It was therefore with a sense of relief that we welcomed him a fewminutes later as he hurried into the office, almost breathless from histrip uptown and back.
"Has anyone called up?" he inquired unceremoniously, unwrapping a smallparcel which he carried.
I told him as briefly as I could what had happened. He nodded, withoutmaking any audible comment, but in a manner that seemed to show nosurprise.
"I want to get this thing installed before anyone else calls," heexplained, setting to work immediately.
"What is it?" I asked, regarding the affair, which included somethingthat looked like a phonograph cylinder.
"An invention that has just been perfected," he replied withoutdelaying his preparations, "by which it is possible for messages to besent over the telephone and automatically registered, even in theabsence of anyone at the receiving end. Up to the present it has beenpracticable to take phonograph records only by the direct action of thehuman voice upon the diaphragm of the instrument. Not long ago therewas submitted to the French Academy of Sciences an apparatus by whichthe receiver of the telephone can be put into communication with aphonograph and a perfect record obtained of the voice of the speaker atthe other end of the wire, his message being reproduced at will bymerely pressing a button."
"Wouldn't the telegraphone do?" I asked, remembering our use of thatinstrument in other cases.
"It would record," he replied, "but I want a phonograph record. Nothingelse will do in this case. You'll see why, before I get through.Besides, this apparatus isn't complicated. Between the diaphragm of thetelephone receiver and that of the phonographic microphone is fitted anair chamber of adjustable size, open to the outer atmosphere by a smallhole to prevent compression. I think," he added with a smile, "it willafford a pretty good means of collecting souvenirs of friends bypreserving the sound of their voices through the telephone." Forseveral minutes we waited.
"I don't think I ever heard of such effrontery, such open, bare-facedchicanery," fumed Carton impatiently.
"We'll catch the fellow yet," replied Kennedy confidently. "And I thinkwe'll find him a bad lot."